💡3 ways to turn your complex ideas into simple stories

Hey—It’s Mohammad.

Read Time: 4.8 minutes

Ask a kid to imitate a smart person.

For me, I’d straighten my back, pretend to hold a smoking pipe as I scrunch my face, and speak using big words like Sherlock Holmes.

But when I was 6 years old, sitting cross-legged on our living room carpet, a tv show called NOVA came on.

On screen, scientists were explaining earthquakes - not with big words, but with stories and demonstrations that made me feel like I was discovering alongside them. I pointed at the TV and declared, "I want to be that: a scientist!"

But that moment revealed something else:

The best communication isn't about sounding smart. It's about making others feel smart.

How to make others feel smart.

1 way to do this: help people discover ideas for themselves.

People don’t change minds reading oceans of data. They change minds because of stories. Stories convince them to change their mindset, worldview, and internal story. They discover the idea for themselves.

The best place to study how to help people discover ideas for themselves is science communication because they use clear structures to guide them from not knowing to understanding:

• Bill Nye The Science Guy 

• The Ascent of Man

• SmarterEveryDay

• Connections

• Veritasium

• COSMOS

• SciShow

• NOVA

Each show creates "aha!" moments when you watch them.

3 Frameworks for creating “aha!” moments:

These moments come through story. Not through data. The secret to creating stories is structure. How you organize the information is critical.

Here are 3 frameworks to help out organized by when to use it.

1) If you’re describing a problem & solution, use:
The Discovery Framework:

Context-Problem-Solution-Impact

• Context: What are we talking about

• Problem: What’s the problem to focus on

• Solution: What did people tried & what worked

• Impact: What was the result of their efforts over time

Why this works:

Remember watching Richard Feynman's eyes light up as he explained physics?

He'd start with something familiar - like watching a cup of coffee cool down - before revealing how it connected to the mysteries of thermodynamics. By the end, you weren't just learning physics; you were seeing the world in a new way.

You’re walking your audience through the thought process. People will have their own questions as they listen, and you provide the answers as you go.

Instead of giving them the answers without the reasoning behind it.

2) If you’re talking about a new idea, use:
The Wonder Framework:

Observation-Hypothesis-Experiment-Conclusion

• Observation: Something you notice in daily life

• Hypothesis: What do you think it is?

• Experiment: How can you verify it?

• Conclusion: what did you learn?

Why this works:

Bill Nye didn't just teach science - he sparked wonder.

The key part is the observation. Every episode started with something kids saw in their daily lives. That balloon floating in your living room? Suddenly it became a gateway to understanding air pressure.

Science wasn't just in textbooks; it was everywhere around us.

Framework 3) If you need to describe history too, use:
The Story Framework

Past-Present-Future

• Past: What was it like?

• Present: What’s it like now?

• Future: Where are we going next?

Why this works:

Most lectures give you answers the questions you didn’t think to ask. When you follow this past-present-future framework, you guide your audience on the trial and error happening behind the scenes.

Think about Veritasium's video on the light bulb.

It wasn't just about electricity - it was about human perseverance.

About Edison's countless failures that led to success. About how one glowing filament would eventually power the computers that changed our world.

It made you feel connected to this grand human story of discovery.

Structure is the key to simplifying complexity

I still remember that evening watching NOVA.

I didn't understand everything about seismology. But I understood the excitement of discovery. I felt the wonder of realizing our planet had stories to tell through its tremors and shakes.

That’s the power of good communication.

It's not about dumping information - it's about creating moments where understanding clicks, where eyes light up, where someone jumps up and thinks "I get it now!"

It's about that electric moment when something complicated suddenly makes sense. When you see the world with new eyes. When a six-year-old can look at a TV screen and see not just scientists, but their own future.

Remember: Your audience might forget the technical terms, but they'll never forget how you made them feel when understanding finally clicked.

Hope you enjoyed it!

See you next Saturday — Mohammad Khan

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